I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).

Paul, writing about the wilderness journey of the Israelites in 1 Corinthians, states that Christ was with them and was their spiritual nourishment and sustenance. Even though they did not know it at the time, Jesus was with them. In fact, the rock Moses struck has regularly been seen by spiritual writers as  foreshadowing Christ, whose side was pierced (John 19:34) and the water coming from the rock as foreshadowing the giving of the Spirit (John 7:37-39).

For us, on our Christian journey, Christ is our nourishment; He is our sustainer. All we need is in Him.

Nevertheless there are warnings we need to heed, and this is what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10. It is sadly possible to feed on Christ, and to drink from Him, and yet still disobey and displease God (1 Cor.10:5-11). We can live well below the level of our privileges.